MA homeschooling

Philomena Holt filed this request with the Department of Education of Massachusetts.
Submitted Feb. 11, 2017
Status
Completed

Communications

From: Philomena Holt

Subject: Public Records Law Request: MA homeschooling

Email

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the Massachusetts Public Records Law, M.G.L. c.66, §10, I hereby request the following records:

Policies and electronic correspondence concerning "homeschool" or "homeschooling" or "home-based education".
Reports and statistics concerning the number of homeschooled students statewide or by school district for years 2006-2016.
Policies and communications concerning homeschool students fulfillment of state competency requirements for graduation (e.g. MCAS, PARCC, other).
Policies, recommendations and communications concerning participation by homeschool students in curricular or extra-curricular activities of public schools.
Estimates of the cost of providing proportional state funding to districts in support of homeschool participation part-time in education curriculum of public schools.

I also request that, if appropriate, fees be waived as we believe this request is in the public interest, as suggested but not stipulated by the recommendations of the Massachusetts Supervisor of Public Records. The requested documents will be made available to the general public free of charge as part of the public information service at MuckRock.com, processed by a representative of the news media/press and is made in the process of news gathering and not for commercial usage.

I expect the request to be filled in an accessible format, including for screen readers, which provide text-to-speech for persons unable to read print. Files that are not accessible to screen readers include, for example, .pdf image files as well as physical documents.

In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 10 calendar days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Philomena Holt

From: Varon, Joshua (DOE)

Subject: Public Records Law request: MA Homeschooling

Email

Dear Ms. Holt:

On February 11, 2017, you requested public records concerning MA Homeschooling. The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (ESE) has very few records that respond to your request. In what follows I've done my best to explain what ESE does and does not have, and to provide other hopefully useful information:

1) Policies and electronic correspondence concerning "homeschool" or "homeschooling" or "home-based education". To the extent policies related to homeschooling are described in other parts of your request, below, you'll find the responsive documents in the responses to your other requests. Aside from this, ESE has identified no records that respond to your request.

2) Reports and statistics concerning the number of homeschooled students statewide or by school district for years 2006-2016. ESE does not possess the specific categories of data you have requested. For the data on Homeschooled students that the ESE does possess, click the web-link below.

In 2011 ESE began to compile a School Attending Children Report. This report is disaggregated by town, and will contain some but not all of the information you have requested. You can find this report here: http://profiles.doe.mass.edu/state_report/schoolattendingchildren.aspx?year=2016&mode=district&Continue.x=6&Continue.y=8<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__profiles.doe.mass.edu_state-5Freport_schoolattendingchildren.aspx-3Fyear-3D2016-26mode-3Ddistrict-26Continue.x-3D6-26Continue.y-3D8&d=DwMGaQ&c=lDF7oMaPKXpkYvev9V-fVahWL0QWnGCCAfCDz1Bns_w&r=QwFMZk3f-iV8DsXW1JsxvPo24ikh4SCkz5buAaJdvTc&m=AcCoI49EatZmL1XGjXZqnnEkHs4aJw7c1wv422TcYhM&s=JD0jewto3vQOkI1MUyznPsx74wVCyY0zprJlQwVPBAg&e=>

3) Policies and communications concerning homeschool students fulfillment of state competency requirements for graduation (e.g. MCAS, PARCC, other). ESE has no "communications" that respond to this request. As to policies, at present, ESE is developing policy guidance for school districts on this matter. This policy guidance, in its current draft form, is exempt from the public records law under the deliberative process exemption. G.L. c. 4, § 7(26)(d). Exemption (d) notwithstanding, ESE does not presently permit students who are privately enrolled, as are home-schooled students, to participate in its statewide system of student assessment.

4) Policies, recommendations and communications concerning participation by homeschool students in curricular or extra-curricular activities of public schools. ESE has no records that respond to this request. Decisions by districts of residence about access for home-schooled students in school-based activities are determined locally.

5) Estimates of the cost of providing proportional state funding to districts in support of homeschool participation part-time in education curriculum of public schools. ESE has no records that respond to this request.

I hope you find this helpful,

Josh Varon
Legal Counsel
MA Dept. of Elem. and Sec. Ed.
jvaron@doe.mass.edu<mailto:jvaron@doe.mass.edu>
781-338-3400

Files

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